Note: I don’t necessarily condone anything Jared Leto does; he’s a loose cannon. A true artist, that one. More about him another time.

Did any of you see Suicide Squad recently? (If you didn’t, I understand. Rotten Tomatoes gave it around 27%.)

Well I saw it with my teenage sister and her friend, who was just ecstatic to see it for the second time and already had plans for a third viewing.

I also have college friends who are seriously into DC comics and frequently cosplay, and some of these very characters, too.

So, I get the hype. I’m a Batman girl, myself, so I had to get to the theater somehow, because I was just too curious. (I haven’t seen Batman vs. Superman or whatever yet because I miss Christian Bale too much.)

And I must say, I was completely entranced by the spectacle of the film. It was a smorgasbord of intrigue for me, complete with character motivation and backstory, ethical questions, quality performances, etc. There was just so much for me to sift through.

I’m not going to try to tell you whether the movie was bad or good. Frankly, I enjoyed it, so I don’t care to persuade you all.

I just came to tell you something that I found interesting: people love these guys.

Deadshot, Harley, and even Mr. J get big love from all their fans. And I don’t think that this is simply just love of the characters’ complexities, which is my main interest.

For example, the relationship between Harley Quinn and the Joker is one that many fans can’t get enough of. One girl I talked to said, “I just love them and their story.”

I think to myself, yes, I quite enjoyed their complementary maniacal personalities on the screen. Their relationship, however, is one that was basically founded on torture, so good luck to anyone who considers that meritorious.

And yet, we the audience love these baddies. We can’t help it. Something somewhere in the fibre of each one is redeemable, or at least seems so.

So I started thinking. Why? Why do we want to find redeemable qualities in these characters?

I decided that the pattern was:

sympathy

compassion

acceptance

Every single time we were introduced to a new character, we felt bad for them. We had compassion on them for whatever circumstance they were in that had for whatever reason, just gotten out of hand. We can all relate on some level, because we’re all human. Then we accepted them because we want to be accepted ourselves. We’re all broken, after all.

Then I began listening to Jared Leto’s band Thirty Seconds to Mars again. An excellent choice. I quickly found my favorite song: “Kings and Queens.”

I’ve provided the lyrics, via Google Play. And here’s the video… because you need the audio to understand the scope of this song.

Into the night
Desperate and broken
The sound of a fight
Father has spoken.

We were the kings and queens of promise
We were the victims of ourselves
Maybe the children of a lesser God
Between Heaven and Hell,
Heaven and Hell.

Into your eyes
Hopeless and taken
We stole our new lives
Through blood and name
In defense of our dreams
In defense of our dreams

We were the kings and queens of promise
We were the victims of ourselves
Maybe the children of a lesser God
Between Heaven and Hell,
Heaven and Hell.

The age of man is over
A darkness comes at dawn
These lessons that we’ve learned here
Have only just begun

We were the kings and queens of promise
We were the victims of ourselves
Maybe the children of a lesser God
Between Heaven and Hell.

We are the kings
We are the queens
We are the kings
We are the queens

And I thought to myself, This song is the Fall. It was about people who knew that they were destined for glory and greatness, but something along the way just didn’t click the way it was supposed to. There was some mistake. Life wasn’t right.

And that relates to Suicide Squad perfectly. At one point in the film, you see the dreams they had for their lives if everything had gone according to plan. They all have their loved ones back with them and they aren’t stuck in their current ugly and violent circumstances.

In my life, I just hope that I can help others remember that even though “we were the victims of ourselves” in that original sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and even though we’re subject to concupiscence, ready to fall, we are not the “children of a lesser God.” We have an awesome God. And He’ll raise us on the last day.

Here’s to everyone stuck singing Leto’s song thinking the downfall is glorious because being tragically human is as beautiful as it’s gonna get. They’re wrong. If they only knew what’s coming.